07 July 2008, Skagway.

I have now been coming to Skagway since 1994 and I have seen it rain, I have seen it blow hard (a lot of the latter) and I have seen the sun shine there all day. However today Skagway offered a very peculiar weather pattern. The weather forecast was wrong but I do not think that they would have been able to get it even remotely right anyway as the depression of yesterday threw everything out of kilter. Forecast had been very little wind in the morning and rain for most of the day. When we arrived it was blowing 25 knots off the dock and the sun was coming out. Then the normal wind pattern is that it increases in velocity in the afternoon, funneling up the Lynn Canal. Instead the wind abated to a steady 15 knots for most of the day and died then down to a whimper by the time we departed.

We docked at the Broadway dock today as we had an extra ship in port, the Silver Shadow whose departure time was 1700 hrs. and thus had to be parked somewhere in the back so it could get out first. The Veendam was rescheduled from the Ore dock to the smaller Broadway dock, the Silver Shadow got the spot at the end of the Ore dock and the paddle steamer Empress of the North the beginning of the Ore dock. In total 5 cruise ships in port today. Plus a nice day with sunny periods which was perfect for the ships tours.

When we dock at the Broadway dock, the bow just ends south of the where the natural estuary of the local creek used to be. Fore as long as I know the once natural estuary has been replaced by a pipe that deposits the water of the creek in the harbor. A few years ago the North harbor wall of Broadway dock was renewed, the pipe was moved to the corner and a fish ladder was added. Salmon want to go up this creek to spawn and via the old pipe it was not so easy. Now with the fish ladder, they can just hop up the steps, swim through the tunnel/pipe and re enter daylight somewhere off the town.

A maybe not planned side effect of this fish ladder has been the arrival of Harbor Seals and also Sea lions, who patrol near the pipe ending as soon as the Salmon starts running. The seals must think of it as some sort of free drive in restaurant. Just sit there and the Salmon comes by in great numbers going up the pipe. They are getting their daily meal without having to do much fishing, just open the mouth when the next fish passes by. The salmon trek has not started yet but today we saw the first seals already cruising, to and from, in front of the entrance of the pipe. A nice sight as well for our guests who are walking over the catwalk to the town and pass by about 15 feet above water level.

Apart from the cruise ships we also had the Alaska State Ferries in. Normally we see only one but the schedule must have changed, as we saw the Malaspina, the Columbia and the Kennecott all traveling up and down the Lynn Canal. The Kennecott docked at Skagway in the afternoon and was picking a long row of mobile homes. We all dock in close proximity and as the ferries are that not large we can look straight down onto their decks. One particular item that really fascinates me is that you can pitch your tent while on board. The European ferries that I am used to require that you sit in the day room or when on an overnight run book a cabin. Here if you are on a backpacker trip, you just pitch your tent on deck and ride the ferry that way. I wonder what they do when the ship runs out of camping ground????
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Alaska State Ferry Columbia and “professional” way of pitching a tent on deck of a ship.

We were the last ship leaving Skagway, the other ships either being docked in such a way that they had to leave first, or because they had to travel to a further away destination, left earlier anyway. We only had to get to Juneau, which is about 90 miles down the road and right at the other side of the mountain range. Weather for Juneau calls for rain, so it might be a miserable day tomorrow, it would be the first one this cruise.